F1 2017 too difficult?

I’m back into sim racing but have a low end pc and a t150 wheel, so I’ve been playing GTR2 and a bit of f1 2012 which just about runs ok at 60fps. I’m not very fast but can manage to play both with all driving aids off no problems, however a friend of mine recently bought a t300 and f1 2017 and I went around to have a go. Now I thought with all the practice I’ve been having lately with the mclarean in Australia in f1 2012 that I’d have no problem turning some decent laps in f12017 with no driving aids on, how wrong could I be!! Embarrassingly I could barely put the accelerator down without losing controlI’ve read on some forums that f1 2017 is still not a true “sim” but boy if that’s what people are calling arcade these days then I’d hate to try and drive a modern sim!
What do people think about the difficulty of driving no aids in f1 2012 vs 2017?